Paddington Bear
Paddington Bear is a series of British animated shorts based on the Paddington Bear book series by Michael Bond produced by FilmFair. This was the first television series based on the popular children's book Paddington Bear. In the United States it was usually shown on pay television as filler in between programs. Its narrator was actor Michael Hordern. The series has a very distinctive art style. Paddington himself is a stop-motion animated puppet who moves within a 3-dimensional space and interacts with 2-dimensional animated drawings of the human characters, buildings, etc. Broadcast Series One (episodes 1 to 30, entitled Paddington) was aired on the BBC1 in 1975, and Series Two (episodes 31 to 56, entitled The Adventures of Paddington) between 1978 and 1979, with specials airing in 1980, 1984 and 1986. Internationally, episodes of the series aired in the United States on PBS, on the syndicated series Romper Room, on Nickelodeon as a segment on the program Pinwheel and on USA Network as a segment on the Calliope (TV series) in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as well as in between preschool programming on The Disney Channel as a segment on the programme Lunch Box from the late 1980s into the 1990s.12 The series also aired on HBO in between features, usually when they were airing children's programmes. Episodes Specials * Paddington Goes To The Movies (1980) A 21-minute special in which Paddington goes to the movies. On leaving, in the street outside complete with umbrella, he performs Gene Kelly's famous dance routine from Singin' in the Rain. Original Air Date: 15 March 1983 * Paddington Goes to School (1984) A 25-minute special in which Paddington is forced to go to school when a truant officer says that he must go since he is "of age". Includes a scene in which he performs Flight of the Bumblebee on a violin. In this episode colour has been added to all the 2-D animation and backgrounds. Original Air Date: 3 January 1985. * Paddington’s Birthday Bonanza (1986) A 24-minute special in which Paddington finds himself in trouble as he becomes a one-man band to raise money to buy Mr Brown's birthday present. Unfortunately, things don’t go to plan... In this episode colour has been added to all the 2-D animation and backgrounds. Additionally, this is the first and only episode where the animated characters' mouths actually move when they speak. This is also the series finale. Original Air Date: 26 December 1987 * NOTE: The specials were originally broadcast on the BBC and later repeated on CITV in early 2002. In popular culture Paddington is seen in four adverts for Marmite in the late 2000s.34 DVD releases In Region 2, Abbey Home Media Group released the entire series on DVD in the UK on 23 June 2008. The 2-disc set features all 56 shorts as well as the 3 specials.5 In Region 1, Mill Creek Entertainment (under license from Cookie Jar Group) released the complete series on DVD on 15 February 2011 in a 3-disc set entitled Paddington Bear- The Complete Classic Series. Repeats Paddington Bear has been shown several times on BBC1 and BBC2 from 1975 - 1990, CBBC on Choice have shown Paddington Bear once, from Monday 12th June 2000 - Friday 25th August 2000. it hasn't been shown once after this although it has been on Nick Jr. Category:CBBC Category:BBC children's television programmes Category:Animated series Category:Stop Motion Animation Category:1970s Shows Category:1980s Shows Category:1976 television show debuts Category:1980 television show endings